So Damn Clever
by Aeladya
Summary: Laura Taylor was kidnapped when she was three years old. She was found years later, but as a untrusting girl who is afraid of her own family. Will she ever start to trust her family? Or will her family give up on her?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Ariella Jacobs was a normal 20 year old woman, loved music, sex, all sorts of things, sure she was a bit of an otaku, and she loved video games, the classics especially. She had a horrible past, one she tried to forget, no matter how hard it was. She lived in a big city, until she was told to move to the middle of nowhere by her family. She wasn't book smart, but it didn't bother her any, she knew enough to get by.

Ariella only considered Idaho to be the middle of nowhere, it was as boring as hell, still she had a steady job, wanting desperately to get out of the hell hole known as Idaho, she had plans, to go to college, or at least a trade school, and get a job that paid more than the crap she had recently.

Ariella didn't remember much about her past, everything before age 6 was a blur for her. Still she knew her birth parents, or the people she thought were her birth parents didn't care for her. So her aunt took her in, she at least cared for her. They were pretty much the best of friends, Ariella helped out to take care of her kids; they worked at the same place so it cut down on gas prices.

Ariella didn't know why she couldn't remember anything past age 6. She didn't know that she did have a family that cared for her, and that she really wasn't Ariella Jacobs, and that she wasn't actually 20, try 15, she just thought she was born prematurely, she was always small for her age.

Ariella was addicted to her iPod, listening to The Plain White T's, bobbing her head to the music as she waited for her ride, she was still attempting to learn to drive, but with all the costs it was more trouble than it was worth, after all, with her crappy paycheck she could afford rent, food, and maybe one game, and that was about it. She got lucky enough to buy herself a Wii, which was her idea of exercise, so she bought games and played them with her cousins. Ariella was too in tune with her iPod to hear someone talking to her, or at least trying to.

At age three, a young girl named Laura Taylor was taken from her family, the only thing left behind in the crime scene was some blood smeared on a wall, a dead 6 year old child, and some hair, none of which matched, especially to the missing child. It took 12 years for them to track down the deceased girl's biological father, figure out that the kidnapee lived in a different state, and figure out where exactly she was. The biological mother was nowhere to be found. Since it was the woman who did the kidnapping and murder, there was no way to convict someone who couldn't be found.

So Laura was in Idaho, with no memories of her past life, except the horrible trauma she went through with the woman who kidnapped her and physically abused her, which is why she lived with the woman she thought was her aunt and best friend, well she was half right. Ariella Jacobs was Laura Taylor, now how to break the news?

Well they had to get the police in both Detroit involved as well as Idaho Falls. So Laura's real parents, one was the host of a tool show, the other was a major in psychology, either way, Laura or Ariella, had a hard time getting close to anyone, so how was this going to work out?

"Maybe we should try to tap on her shoulder to get her attention?" Jill Taylor said as she watched the girl bob her head to the beat of her iPod. The girl was tapping her legs like a drum to the beat of 'You and Me' by The Plain White T's, mouthing the lyrics. So, Jill tapped the girl's shoulder, causing Ariella to jump a bit. She turned around and looked at the couple strangely, there were police with them too. 'Did they think I stole something? They checked my stuff before I left, so what could the deal be?' Ariella thought. She turned off her iPod and took her headphones out. "Something I can help you out with?" Ariella asked.

"Ariella Jacobs right?" Jill asked. "Yeah…unless my name has changed in the last 5 minutes, and if that's the case I think I deserve to know…god…I must be out of the loop if that's the case…" Ariella joked; she was a joker, which was nothing new. "Can we talk for a minute?" Jill asked her. "Yeah, but I'm gonna time it…you have 60 seconds, starting…now." Ariella added with a chuckle. She stood up from her position on the curb and dusted herself off. Ariella then stuck her hands in her pockets.

"Do you know an Arella Jacobs?" the police asked. "I wish I didn't…psycho bitch…" Ariella muttered, even though everyone heard her. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Jill asked, it was a force of habit, even though she knew that she was the girl's mother. "Not lately, haven't seen her in…12 years sounds right…Arella Jacobs, anyway, what did you wanna know about her, besides the fact that the woman has absolutely positively no sanity?" Ariella said as she pushed a lock of brown hair out her face.

"Arella kidnapped a young girl about 12 years ago." The police informed her. "That doesn't surprise me, not one bit." Ariella said with a sigh. "We have reason to believe that you are that girl." The police told her. Ariella laughed. "You're kidding right?" Ariella asked, she looked at the police, a car pulled up. "Do we look like we're kidding?" the man chimed in, Tim Taylor, her birth father. "Look, I don't have time for this shit, I have to go." Ariella said as she got into the passengers seat of the car and her aunt drove off.

"Don't worry Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, we have her address." The police said. "What did you do now?" Renee, Ariella's aunt asked. "Nothing, they said that psycho bitch kidnapped me. They're so full of it." Ariella said as they got home. Ariella went to her room and put her iPod back on, listening to some music while she played Super Smash Bros. Brawl online.

The police knocked on the door and showed Renee the picture of Laura when she was younger, before she was kidnapped, she looked just like Ariella. Renee knew her ex-sister-in-law was crazy, but she never suspected how crazy. Renee motioned for them to follow her and she knocked on Ariella's door. "She probably has that damn iPod on again." She said as she entered her room, watching Ariella listen to music and play her Nintendo Wii.

Renee tapped on Ariella's shoulder. Ariella took off her headphones and looked up. "Just gimme a minute Renee…I need to finish this match…" she said. Ariella never called her Aunt Renee. "Can't it wait?" Renee asked. "No, it's online, no pause online…gimme a sec." Ariella said as she quickly tapped the buttons, getting the Smash Ball and having Sheik use her Final Smash, the Light Arrow. Ariella won of course. "Yes! I win again! I told them Zelda wasn't useless!" Ariella cheered as she got offline.

"Oh great…you guys again…don't you know stalking's illegal?" Ariella asked. "Look, we can prove that you were kidnapped. Look at this picture." Jill said as she showed her the picture from her past. "So…you have a picture of me…big deal…" Ariella said as she crossed her arms. "More proof? Fine…you have a birth defect, the pinky on your left hand, it's curved in." she said. "How the…what are you, part of the Psychic Friends Network?" Ariella said as she crossed her arms. "And you have your father's sense of humor, and klutziness…" she said. Ariella pinched herself. "Damn…I'm not dreaming." Ariella said.

"You used to fall down the stairs all the time when you were little." Jill said to her. "Jeez, so some things never change." Renee said with a smile. "You know, you can be replaced, with the push of a button." Ariella said as she rolled her eyes. "Ok, so whatever, nice to meet you, you can leave…" Ariella said as she walked out of her room. "You're 15, we're not leaving." Tim said to her. "I'm 20…and proud of it…sorta…" Ariella said. "No you're not…don't make us older than we already are." Tim said to her. "Yeah, whatever." Ariella said as she put her earphones back in and turned on her iPod to tune everyone out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ariella continued to tune out her so called family. This was too ridiculous to believe, were they high? "Great, she's tuning us out." Jill said as she threw her hands up in annoyance. "I took her in when social services took her away from Arella. They wouldn't say why they took her away, but it took her a long time to get her to trust me, she has trust issues, and I have no clue why." Renee said to them.

"I wish you all the luck in the world trying to get her to trust you." Renee added. Jill tapped on her daughter's shoulder once more. Ariella continued to tune her out. Finally she grabbed her iPod and turned it off. "Laura, just listen to what we have to say." Jill pleaded. "My name is Ariella, not Laura, so fuck off!" she said in anger as she ripped her iPod out of Jill's hands and stormed off.

"Well that went great Ms. Psychology." Tim joked. "This is not the time for jokes Tim." Jill said as she tried to think of how to get her daughter to listen to her. Ariella went to the river by the house and watched the water flow by her. It somehow calmed her down a bit. "You know, when you were little, you were a lot closer to us. You used to never want to be put down." Jill said as she sat next to Ariella. "You've got the wrong girl." Ariella said as she threw a stone into the river and watched it skip down the water before falling to the bottom of the river. "We know that you're her, you just can't accept it." She replied back.

"Yes, because I don't tend to accept stupidity as a proper answer." Ariella replied. "What does that mean?" Jill asked her. "It means that you don't have any proof except for cosmetic defects that could be part of any average human being." Ariella added. "Yeah, but the odds are extremely low, the chances of you looking exactly like her as a child and having the same defects are slim to none." Jill replied.

"Then you accept the chance that you can be wrong." Ariella said as she stood up and started walking. She picked a flower and twirled it in her fingers. "Sure I accept it, but I know I'm not. I doubt the police…" she started. "What? Are wrong? Police are human as well; therefore they make stupid mistakes just like everyone else." Ariella said as she continued walking.

"Look, I mean the proof doesn't get clearer than physical evidence, pictures…" Jill said as she caught up with Ariella, showing her the pictures. "Pictures can be doctored you know…so maybe I am this girl…I'm not going…" Ariella said. "You're happy with making what 6.50 an hour? You're happy living here with a dead end job? What about college?" she asked. "What about it? I never had the grades to get into a college; the most I could hope for is a trade school. I was lucky enough to graduate. I have a 2.1 GPA; I can't even qualify for a scholarship." Ariella said. "You graduated high school 4 years earlier than you should have, a 2.1 isn't the best, but you tried to graduate before you should have." Jill replied. "Yeah…whatever…look, I have work in the morning…I need to go to bed." Ariella said as she headed back to the house and into her room.

"We're getting nowhere fast. Laura, we're not done talking, open up!" Jill said as she knocked on the door. Ariella opened the door. "I think I like Ariella better." She said as she tried to shut the door in their face, but Tim put his foot in the door before she had a chance to shut it all the way. "So you're just going to force me to go with you?" Ariella said as she sat on her bed angrily. "Yeah, pretty much, because we're your parents and we're not letting you live like this." Tim said to her. "Whatever" Ariella said as she laid down on her bed and buried her head under her pillow.

So Laura was forced to move with her parents, of course, she had her name on her diploma changed to her real name, she still kept in touch with her other family, but when she got to her new, or rather old home, Laura shut herself in the closet, refusing to come out. She finally came out a few days later, but it took a lot of coaxing to get her to do. Still Laura didn't trust her family, having been hurt before, she just didn't want it to happen again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter

**Chapter 3**

Laura wasn't used to being Laura, she had walked into the door, taking a walk for a while. She was still sore, she had caught up with a person from her past, and was told if she said anything then she would be killed. She had 3 broken ribs, from her getting hurt somehow, she was light-headed and was in tons of pain.

"Laura is that you?" her mother asked. Laura didn't say anything. Jill came over to Laura. "Are you alright?" she asked her. "F-Fine…" Laura muttered as she headed towards the stairs, but fell. "You're not fine…what's wrong?" Jill asked her. Laura coughed up some blood into her hand. "Oh my god…" she said as she tried to help Laura up, but Laura pushed her away and passed out.

"Laura…Laura wake up!" she said as she tried to get Laura awake. Jill saw Laura's cell phone on the ground and picked it up, calling an ambulance. 15 minutes later an ambulance arrived and she was rushed to the hospital and into surgery. An hour later a doctor came out. "Your daughter was suffering from some internal bleeding due to three broken ribs. She's fine, but needs some rest and will have to stay here for at least tonight." The doctor said.

"Oh my god…can I see her?" she asked. "Yes of course…she should just be waking up." The doctor said as he showed her to Laura's room. "Oh thank god you're alright, how are you feeling?" she asked. Laura didn't say anything, and Jill knew that Laura didn't trust her, psychology did pay off in the end. "You still don't trust me do you? I don't read minds, why don't you trust me?" she asked. "Don't shrink me…it's none of your business." Laura said coldly. "I'm your mother, it's my business to know." Jill replied. "Says you." Laura retorted.

Jill stayed silent for a moment. "I'm going to go call your father and brothers, to tell them what happened." She said, almost in tears as she left the room to make the call. Laura stayed silent, she still didn't trust her, she was afraid of being abused again, much like when she was little by the woman who took her. A woman came in and put a pillow over her face. Laura tried to scream, but the woman came and took the IV, swinging it at Laura, beating her with it, breaking a 4th rib. She took her by her arm and pulled her across the room, separating her shoulder, throwing her into a wall, in critical condition.

Laura laid there limp as the woman came after her again. "You stupid little bitch! I told you I would kill you if you told, now you can just die." She said as she kicked Laura in the chest. Jill felt something wrong and went back to Laura's room, seeing someone hurting Laura. She recognized the woman as the same one that took Laura when she was little, Arella Jacobs. She saw the table and pushed it into the woman, knocking her away from Laura. Security came in and took the woman, going to have her arrested for assault. Laura was in pretty serious condition, barely conscious. "Laura! Laura! Can you hear me?" Jill asked her. Laura wasn't moving.

The doctors came and took her back to surgery. Five hours later they came out and had her fixed once more. Laura woke up 20 minutes after getting out of surgery. She was quite a mess. She saw her mother there. "Why…did you get involved?" she asked in tears. "Like I was going to just sit there and watch you get hurt? Are you out of your mind? Was she the one who hurt you earlier?" Jill asked. Laura stayed silent for a few moments. "It's no big deal…I've gotten used to it." Laura said quietly. "She's done this before?" Jill asked her. Laura nodded, wincing in pain.

"How often did she do it?" she asked Laura. Laura was silent for a few minutes. "Every spare moment she had." Laura finally said in tears. "So that's why you're so reluctant to trust anyone…" Jill said as she stepped outside. "Hey how's she doing?" Tim asked her. "That psycho that kidnapped her just tried to kill her." She replied. "What?!" he said, getting rather angry. "On the bright side, I know why she doesn't trust us." Jill added. "That woman physically abused her. It's perfectly understandable why she doesn't trust us. In her mind, she thinks we might hurt her too. So she put up walls to protect herself, not trusting anyone. If we want her to trust us, we're going to have to prove we won't hurt her, and with your accidents that could be a challenge." She said.

Laura was staring at the ceiling, letting tears run down her cheeks and onto her pillow. She refused to let others get close to her, she thought that she was going to get hurt, she was so afraid of getting hurt that she refused to let others get close to her. Laura did build up walls around her, she had only let certain people get close to her, and she wasn't even related to them.

They came back into the room seeing Laura crying. "She's never going to leave me alone." Laura said in tears. "Shhhh yes she will, she got arrested." Jill said to her. "That won't stop her! She'll get out of jail and keep coming back until I'm dead." Laura said in tears. "Look, we're not going to let that happen. She's not going to coming near you ever again, we promise. If she comes back, Brad can kick soccer balls at her and Mark can use karate on her, and Al can use a picture of his mother to scare her away." Tim said, joking partially. Laura laughed a bit, she hadn't laughed in a long time. Laura winced in pain.

"Come on, you're going to be safe, who else is going to show me how to play Mario Kart Wii, I heard you're the best of the best. And computers, they're your specialty right?" Tim said to her. "Yeah…I guess…I suck at math so I have to be good at something, the irony…" Laura joked slightly. She started to fall asleep, which was probably the best thing, rest.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Laura was the youngest of all of her siblings, she had 3 older brothers, which she was getting used to. Her ribs were healing as well as her shoulder, which her arm was still in a sling from it being separated. She had gone to the mall by herself. She stopped into a book store. "Hey, do you guys have The Magician by Michael Scott?" she asked. "Sorry, that book has been sold out for months." The clerk said to her. "Oh you've got to be kidding me." Laura said, getting a bit annoyed.

She went to a game store and picked up No More Heroes for her Wii, luckily she had her ID from Idaho that stated that she was 20 years old still. So Laura headed back to her so called home. It still felt weird, like staying at a friend's house. For a while, she refused to eat any the food or drink anything because it didn't feel right. Now, it still feels weird, but less weird.

Laura walked in the door and shut it behind her. "What game did you buy?" Tim asked looking at her bag, causing Laura to jump a bit. "Jeez…" she said trying to catch her breath. "Oh erm, just something." She said as she looked at the bag, taking the game out. "No More Heroes…don't tell your mother that you got a Mature rated game, she'll kill you." He said. "You're not going to scold me?" Laura asked. "You've played M rated games before and seen R rated movies, so I don't see a problem, but somehow your mother will." He replied.

"Wow…that's really cool of you." Laura said as she headed to her room. "Hey, do you want to help me out with the new Hot Rod?" he asked. "Ok, I'm lucky enough to know the pedal on the right means go. I don't know anything about any mechanical object unless it's a computer, or a paintball gun." Laura said. "Party pooper…" he replied. "I thank you." Laura said as she bowed and headed off to her room.

Jill headed through the garage door. "Hey Laura! Can you come down here for a minute?" Jill yelled. Laura sighed and hid the game under her bed, heading down the stairs before she fell and tripped down some of the stairs. "Laura, are you ok?" Randy asked her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shook her head. "Can you move your foot?" he asked her, Laura tried to move it, but screamed out in pain. Their parents came to the bottom of the stairs. "What happened?" Jill asked her. "I think Laura sprained her ankle." Randy said to her. "Look, it's swollen to the size of a balloon." He added. "Alright, Randy go get some ice." She said. "I…It's no big deal…I do this all the time." Laura said in tears.

"Look, we're going to get you to the couch." She said as they helped Laura limp to the couch. Laura knew to prop her ankle up above her heart and Randy brought the ice, Laura placed it on her ankle. "I need to go get the boot…" she said. "What boot?" Randy asked. "It's nothing, I've sprained both ankles so many times I have hospital boots for those who break their ankles. Saves money." Laura said, wiping the tears from her face. "Can you go get your sister some aspirin and some water?" their mother asked. Randy went to go get it for her.

"I know that you're in some pain, but I got you something." Jill said to her as she handed Laura a bag. Laura opened the bag and pulled out a book. It was the same one she had been looking for forever. "How…" Laura started. "Well I saw that you had the first one, and we thought you might like the second, I know it's been sold out here for months, but your father somehow pulled some strings…" Jill said to her. "Oh my god, thank you. That was very sweet." Laura said. Since she had been here, her personality had somewhat changed.

Still, she was getting used to being here; she was starting to trust her family a tiny bit each day. She still had walls around her, but they were starting to come down. Laura yawned as she fell asleep with the book she had been reading laying on top of her.


End file.
